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The 'Middle Years' - that is, education for children in early adolescent, aged 10-15 - became the theme for the regional forum associated with Southern Cross University. The collaborative association of universities and schools was called the 'Roundtable'. Schools in the Roundtable conducted research within their schools with a focus on Years 5 to 8. To add impetus to these professional development and research activities. A Web site http://www.scu.edu.au/ewt/resprof/innolinks.html and a hyper-archived discussion group http://www.scu.edu.au/ewt/resprof/Innoother/midyears.html have been established to discuss and document the Innovative Links activities to promote professional dialogue concerning early adolescent education.
The expansion and development of this site with hyperlinks to local, national and international locations illustrates the power of information technology in developing and disseminating research and knowledge. The Web site provides a basis for trialling the use of the Internet as an alternative form of communication which can empower educational practice and facilitate emancipatory action research and professional dialogue.
Expressions of interest were then sought from schools in the North Coast Region and as a result of this process the Roundtable was formed involving twelve local schools. The Roundtable participants develop research initiatives and strategies through regular meetings. The Southern Cross Roundtable consisted of three core academics from the Faculty of Education, representatives from each of the twelve schools and one representative from each of the participating organisations who developed the project. All parties involved have equal voice.
Southern Cross expanded its participation in the Innovative Links Project by obtaining an additional grant to conduct the second phase evaluation of the national project. A Portrayal Evaluation methodology was used for this evaluation. The process of the Portrayal Evaluation used a reflection of the work completed in schools through the understandings and perspectives of practising teachers involved in the Southern Cross Roundtable.
The transition from childhood to adolescence has recently been revived as a central focus for educational research and reform. The Carnegie Council (1989) in the US found that seven million youths - one in four adolescents - are vulnerable to multiple high-risk behaviours and school failure, and that another seven million are at moderate risk, but remain cause for serious concern. The Carnegie Report (1989) shows that dramatic changes and new pressures confronting young people, including sexual promiscuity, drugs, the breakdown of social relationships in the community and a lack of adult guidance. Hargreaves & Earl (1994), reviewing the Canadian environment, highlight that the middle years of schooling represents a critical phase in human development and that the 'nature of our future depends in part on how we prepare the next generation who will live and make it'.
In Australia, Cumming (1994) reported that middle schooling and issues of early adolescence have become a focus in educational research and reform in the early nineties. The introduction of innovative practices, increased publications, system reviews, increased research and reform projects, the awareness of developments in other countries (particularly the US and Canada) and the increased media coverage on teenage problems and issues, support this claim.
Cumming (1994) warns that many approaches may generate short-term initiatives that lack real depth and quality and possibly provide fallow ground for the trial of strategies and programs in an already complex and overloaded educational agenda. Within the Innovative Links Project (1995) varied approaches have been taken by schools and teachers. This project has included trials of integrative curriculums, reality therapy, vertical unitisation, middle school debating, exchange visits between secondary and primary, co-operative learning, increased teacher understanding of multiple intelligences and a deeper analysis of student needs.
The Schools and teachers involved in our roundtable are involved in action research projects in the Middle Years, including:
(a) teachers own social or educational practices,
(b) teachers understanding of their practices, and
(c) overall structures is schooling systems (Kemmis, 1983).
It is most powerful when teachers combine collaboratively, though it is often undertaken by individuals and sometimes in cooperation with 'outsiders'. In the Innovative Links Project action research has been used to facilitate school-based curriculum development and professional development to effectively meet the needs of students living in the complex society of the 1990s.
Action reseach has as its basis a self-reflective spiral of cycles of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. Kurt Lewin was a pioneer of the research method, describing in 1944 the process in terms of planning, fact-finding and execution (Kemmis, 1983).
The methodology has been refined since its inception and now has the elements of participation and democratic basis to enhance social change. The most effective form of action research is indicated by Grundy (1982). She describes emacipatory action research through the following:
While its general orientation will still be toward the fostering prudent, professional practice, it also has as its purpose the emancipation of participants in the action from the dictates of compulsions of tradition, precedent, habit, coercion, as well as from self-deception.In this it focuses not not only upon particiular practice, but also the theoretical and organisational structures and social relations which support it (Grundy, 1982, p.28).
Innovative Links has provided a medium for the promotion of and publication of teachers' professional writing. Teachers have traditionally had a reticence to become actively involved in research and writing. The Innovative Links Project has demonstrated to teachers that research is not something performed in the 'hallowed halls' of academia, but can be an integral part of professional practice. Through the methodology of Action Research teachers have discovered for themselves how important documenting their self-discoveries and experimentations can be.
Our activities in implementing Internet technology into the activities of the Roundtable has in itself been a process of Action Research. It has involved:
The cycles of action research are still occurring.
Our Roundtable has approached the use of the Internet as a professional development activity for teachers. At our Roundtable meeting on 23 February 1996 we conducted a demonstration of email and the WWW, and the Manager of Nornet (the University's Commercial service provider http://www.nor.com.au/) spoke to the group and discussed connectivity issues with teachers. Nornet offers particular support and discount access to school in the area, and several of our schools took this opportunity to go 'on-line'.
As Riel (1994) states:
The institutional isolation of teachers from the education community was often accepted as a fact of schooling.... Without an easy means of communication with other members of the educational community, it has been difficult for teachers to assume leadership roles in defining educational change.
Far more could be done by our university and others to facilitate development of hypermedia skills by teachers. There is a need for new inservice programs, postgraduate degrees and teacher pre-service courses. Such models have been adopted by institutions in the United States (Billard, Hruskocy and Laurincik, 1995).
The shared professional dialogue facilitated on the Internet provides many possibilities for improving learning and professional development. As Brown relates:
... good practice in teaching and learning involves interaction: that adults learn best when their life and work experiences are recognised in the teaching and learning environments (Knowles, 1970); and that professional development requires local applications being considered by nationally recognised providers (Brown, 1995, p.232).
The Web site was officially launched on 23 May 1996 by the Vice-Chancellor of Southern Cross University. The occasion provided opportunity for teachers and principals to get 'hands-on' experience of the Web.
The site serves as a filter for access to quality information, vetted by teachers and academics. The products of the academic research and the national and international links established as a consequence of the project are made freely available to other academics and educational partitioners and link teachers and teacher educators in ongoing reform and change.
A Hyper-archived Discussion Group known as MIDYEARS-L was established in July 1996. It is hoped that this group may provide a medium for professional dialogue, locally, nationally and internationally on issues surrounding the education of students in the early adolescent period.
Possible questions and issues for discussion include:
The benefits of the hyperarchived format of discussion group are many. It is not of concern when or how often teachers come on-line - they can join into a thread of discussion at any time. This facilitates the reflection process and allows time for implementation of action cycles and re-representation to the list of new knowledge gained.
While this discusion list is still in its infancy, it is predicted that the list would be slow to gain momentum. Teachers would seem to be somewhat reticent to engage in these new technologies, together with limited email access, and perhaps lack of understanding regarding how to subscribe.
However, it is predicted that the list will foster continued reflection and renewed, informed practice.
The emergence of on-line services like Open Net, On-Australia, E-World and Oz-email, the development of software like Netscape, the broadbanding of much of the nation, and the federal and state governments will see the majority of Australia's schools linked in some way to the Internet within the next two years (Lee, 1996, p.38).
The availability and use of information technology in primary and secondary schools is becoming essential for progressive educational practice. Schools in our local area are only just moving online and our project has provided the impetus for schools to make this shift.
The Innovative Links Web Page has brought the Internet into the local domain for schools. Providing a Web site for the schools and an avenue to facilitate the web publishing of teachers' own writing has made the technology seem less remote. Eventually we hope that each of our schools will develop their own sites. Establishment of the site by the University will reduce the burden and allow sites to be established quickly once the hardware is available.
For educationalists:
The Internet brings home, in a very powerful way, the global nature of the world. It encourages both the teacher and student to look well beyond the traditional boundaries. it questions the nature of current curriculum; amplifies the importance of attributes like networking; interdependence; cultural diversity and global co-operation, and markedly enhances the world view (Lee, 1996, p.39).
As a result of our involvement in these projects, members of our team are building plans for moving this technology further into the future. We recognise a need for:
We also see a need for further investigation, into the:
In conclusion, our paper has focused more on the application of technology and on the interactions of people than on technology itself. In Riel's words:
Working toward interconnectivity is an important goal because it increases the options for teacher collaboration. But establishing the technical link does not, in and of itself, make strangers into global communities or classrooms into collaborative learning centres. It takes careful planning and organization to structure online educational settings that enable teachers and students to use cultural and geographic distance as a learning resourcce. It is the organizational structure of networks, and not the technical links, that will prompt innovation (Riel, 1994).
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